Tutorial Eight

Importing and Using Brushes

In this tutorial you will learn how to import brushes and also how they are used to enhance your creations.

To compete this tutorial you will need to download the supplies which can be found Here and also download the Heart Brushes 1 set from jansdesigns.com Here

Unzip both files to a folder on your hard drive. Now open PSP and go to File, Import, Custom brush:-

The following box will now open:-

Click on open and scroll to the folder you unzipped the brush into:-

Highlight the brush files you want to import then click on OK.

The brush or brushes you have chosen will now appear in the left hand box. Click on add or add all and then OK. The brushes are now imported into your PSP program ready to use.

Now let's make a tag using the brush you just imported. Remember to save your image as a psp image as you go along. That way if your program closes unexpectedly you won't have to start right back at the beginning.

Open the Lily image that was in the supplies. Pick a pale colour to use for your background. Open a new image:-

Flood fill the image with the colour you chose. I used #~E3D4EB. Add a new raster Layer.

Now locate your paintbrush:-

Click on it and your paint brush tool bar will appear at the top:-

Click on the drop down and locate the Heart brushes which you imported. Use the settings that are on the screen shot below:-

Size 175. Step 25, Density 100, Opacity 100. Change your foreground colour to a darker colour from your image. I used #EB92D2. Right click onto your image and your leaves brush should show on your image. If you have used my colour choices you will only need to click the brush once. If your choice is a bit pale click it again to increase the depth of your colour.

Now go to your layer palette, right click on the brush layer and duplicate it:-

Now we are going to mirror this duplicated image so that it covers more of your background. Go to Image, Mirror and click.

Now open your lily image up again. Making sure that the image layer is active, right click onto it and copy. Now go to your image , right click and paste as a new layer. Don't panic, I know the image is much too big! Go to Image, Resize:-

Use the following settings to resize the image. Make sure that the resize all layers box is unchecked:-

I resized my image a total of three times at the 75% setting. As changing the size of an image tends to decrease the quality of the image you now need to sharpen it. Go to Adjust, sharpen:-

When you click on sharpen you will see your image lift it's clarity on your tag.

Add a drop shadow with the following settings:-

Now repeat the drop shadow, changing the Vertical and Horizontal settings to -3:-

Now go back to the lily tube image, height light the copyright layer and copy and paste that onto your image. .

Now let's add some text . I used the following settings and the same darker colour as I used for the brush #968E6F:-

When you are happy with your text size and position , right click on the Vector Layer, your text layer, and convert it to a raster Layer:-

Now add a drop shadow using the following settings:-

Your image should now look something like this:-

Now add your "Tagged By" or watermark and save your work as a psp image.

To just add a finishing touch to this image, we are going to create a border. First go to Layers, and merge all.

Now click on Image, Add Borders:-

Add a border using the following settings, hover your colour picker over your image to pick the colour you want:-

Your tag is now ready to save as a jpeg.

Sometimes your brushes will come in a format that will not import in the manner shown in this tutorial. The next tutorial will show you how to create a brush from an image to get over this problem.

If you have any queries on this tutorial , please contact me. I would also love to see your results.

This Tutorial was written in July 2010 by Helen Peachey, and the concept of the tutorial is copyrighted.
Please feel free to LINK to the tutorial and/or print it out for your personal use,
but please do not copy it in any way to put online, pass out or re-write without permission.
The image you create using this tutorial is for you to do what you wish except for monetary gains or for merchandising.
© Peachies Designs and Tutorials. Any Resemblance to another tutorial is purely coincidental.